Care & Discipleship Level 2 – IBCD

Marriage is a stage designed to show forth the realities of the gospel. This seminar will set forth the biblical vision of marriage and give practical counsel of how we can reorient our hearts and actions so our marriages better reflect the profound realities they illustrate.

Is mental illness due to sin or disease? This session discusses the controversy on this topic, discusses biblical definitions of illness and sin and offers suggestions for how to be helpful in the midst of the controversy.

Many counselees are living with a prior psychological diagnosis. How can we help them with compassion and humility? This session will help you learn to speak biblically to heart and life issues of counselees regardless of diagnosis.

The gospel of grace needs to be at the heart of how we understand marriage roles. Both husband and wife have a unique part to play that shows forth the relationship of Christ with his church. This session will focus on the role of the husband in marriage.

The gospel of grace needs to be at the heart of how we understand marriage roles. Both husband and wife have a unique part to play that shows forth the relationship of Christ with his church. This session will focus on the role of the wife in marriage.

Marriage requires lifelong maintenance to keep it healthy and strong. It takes a lot of effort to guard and grow your marriage but the reward is more than worth it. This session will discuss many practical ways to preserve and strengthen your marriage.

God's revelation in Scripture is complete. While every believer is called to seek God's revealed moral will, some go beyond this and claim that God speaks to them. How does God guide us today? How are we to understand his will for our lives?

The goal of parenting is to make your children ready to live wisely on their own. Parents must recognize that their relationship with their adult child is very different from what it was when the child was small. One of the biggest mistakes made by Christian parents is to treat young adults as if they were still small children. How can parents foster healthy relationships with their adult children and pursue peace?

What should parents do when their children rebel? Christian parents must be aware of two extremes: giving up too soon because of personal hurt feelings, anger and bitterness ... and tolerating and enabling sin. How can we beware of not being manipulated and becoming enablers of their sinful lifestyle?

Those advocating formulas often assume a form of “parental determinism” – the (unbiblical) belief that how well you follow their formula determines how your kids turn out. Parents who depend on these can tend toward pharisaical pride, as if we can save our kids by our good works. Parenting is not about following an extra-biblical man-made formula; it is about the gospel.

Parents often look for a formula which will guarantee that their kids will turn out right. Many “Christian” approaches to parenting are legalistic. It is very important to distinguish between what Scripture commands versus one of many possible ways to fulfill our responsibilities to God. Some make their particular methodology “law”, while failing to acknowledge that other approaches are equally valid ways to fulfill biblical commands.

Every family experiences communication breakdown. The key to our relationships with each other is our relationship with God (and vice versa). We need to grant forgiveness when we have been wronged. We need to learn to listen in love. Are we more concerned about being heard, or hearing?

God designed marriage to be a lifelong covenant of companionship. Marriage is worth fighting for. Some are called by God to remain in hard marriages. Divorce (and remarriage) without biblical grounds is sinful and adulterous. This session unpacks the surrounding issues and questions about this difficult subject.

How can we make our sexual relationships in marriage all that they should be? We need to think about our marriage and sex lives through a gospel lens. Gracious sex gives to your spouse freely, just as God has given to you - treating him/her better than he/she deserves.

God is the owner and source of all wealth. We need to maintain a balanced perspective on finances. Money can be good but it is also dangerous. Christians need to learn the secret of contentment as they work hard and smart to make a living. Make it your goal to be wise, not rich!

God created sex to be a blessing. It is part of God's perfect and holy creation but is often twisted sinfully. Idolatry, more than adultery, is the key to understanding sexual sin. Even something which is good can become sinfully idolatrous when we desire it more than we desire God, are willing to sin in order to get it, or react sinfully when we don’t get what we want.